A Bright Winter Suprise
by SpringRiverImagination
Summary: After finishing a mission in Paris Chrome receives a letter from Tsuna telling her that to get home by the following afternoon. Believing it to be an emergency she hurries back. Will she make it on time? This one-shot is set ten years in the future. Please enjoy! And don't forget to Read and Review, I'd love to hear what you thought!


(Ten-year) Future One-Shot

To her the plane seemed to inch along in the air and the clouds seemed to stand still. She couldn't help but fidget in her seat at the slow pace that surrounded her.

Chrome had received the letter from her boss the night before and had been terribly alarmed by the insistent tone of the words there. Tsuna hardly ever demanded things from her and she couldn't shake the feeling that something horrible had taken place…or was going to. She had boarded the first plane back to Japan and was now half way through the air trip with her fears and worries escalating to unbearable levels.

For perhaps the thousandth time she looked to at her phone to see if she had any missed calls—not that there was much chance of her missing a call with how tense she was—and once again came up short. Impatiently she flipped open the cell phone and dialed her boss's number.

She was taken straight to voicemail and she left a message asking him to call her back and tell her what was going on.

Several more minutes passed at an agonizingly slow pace. Before long she found herself dialing another number. It was possible that Mukuro knew what was happening. If he did he would tell her and either put her mind at ease or cause her more worry. Either way she needed to know the wait was killing her.

A few rings sounded in her ear then again she was shifted to voicemail.

Red flags raised in her mind. Mukuro had never once missed a single one of her calls.

Frantically she dialed a third number. It was one she had only used once before and it was the only one she could think of that would probably not shift her to voicemail.

After a few rings and her tense breathing someone picked up at the other end of the line.

"Hello?" The low bored voice of the Vongola's youngest guardian droned from the speaker of her phone.

With a sigh of relief Chrome happily greeted him, "Lambo! It's Chrome! Thank goodness you picked up!"

"Ah…Chrome…" He sounded as if he were thinking something through.

"Lambo? Is something happening with the boss?" She ignored his strange behavior and bit her lip with anticipation.

"Well….nothing's _wrong_…" He answered hesitantly.

"What is it? Tell me!" Her voice was thick with anxiousness and she dully realized that she was being somewhat more demanding than she usually would be. She pushed the thought quickly aside, she could always apologize later.

"I….I should probably go…" Lambo's voice seemed to grow more distant as if he were moving away from the phone.

"Hey! Wait a second!"

The other end went abruptly dead.

Chrome moved through the airport in a great hurry. As she passed the baggage claim in a slow line she even considered leaving her bags behind.

She hadn't been able to get a hold of any of the Guardians, even Kyoko and Haru numbers came right back to voicemail. By now she had a pounding headache from thinking in circles of possible emergencies for which she would be called back so abruptly, and her cell phone beeped to alert her that its battery was low.

Outside the airport she called a Taxi and dropped into its back seat with a tired sigh. She gave the driver the address of a house one block away from the mansion-like house that the Vongola called its base.

"And if it wouldn't be too much trouble." She added in a low voice, "Would you hurry? I'm in a bit of a rush."

"Sure thing!" The driver exclaimed in a familiar overly optimistic tone.

Chrome watched the streets of Namimori pass by her window with a mixed expression in her one good eye. She felt glad to be back, but tired worry also mingled with her happy feelings.

Suddenly the driver pulled the car to a stop. She knew instantly that it was too soon for him to have reached the house; he hadn't been going _that_ fast.

"Um…sir? I said _**Cherry Wood**_ road."

"Oh I know what you said. But that isn't the destination of this trip."

"What? But I—" Chrome stopped short when she saw the drivers face. The black hair…the cheerful voice….the scar on his chin…How could she not have noticed?

"Yamamoto!"

"Good to have you home Chrome!" He smiled back at her.

"But….but….I thought that…I mean the letter said…."

"Calm down!" He waved a hand at her then pointed out the window, "You'll find out what's going on in a second. Just head to the gym!"

"Wha—?" Chrome looked out her window and starred in shock at the shadowed shape of the Namimori Middle School.

She slowly stepped out of the car and made her way up through the front gates. She was confused beyond words, but she decided following Yamamoto's instructions would be best.

She noticed the white puffs that appeared whenever she exhaled and saw that the grounds were cold with frost that covered the grass. The trees were void of leaves because it was early December and the animals were burrowing (or were already burrowed) down for the winter.

When she turned the corner of the front building and made her way the large one in back the she noticed the black haired tall figure standing beside the door of the gym.

As she approached him the former Disciplinary Committee leader made no attempt to speak or stop her and she wouldn't expect him to. Kyoya Hibari wasn't and would never be the conversational type.

She waved almost shyly at him as she went for the door of the gym and received a nod in response.

Then Chrome pulled open the door to the gym and—with Yamamoto coming up behind her to add include himself—she was greeted with a loud cry from voices she knew well.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHROME!"

Standing in the gym in front of her were all her friends. From her boss, all his guardians, Kyoko, and Haru (aside from Hibari and Yamamoto) to Ken and Chikusa (who had not included themselves in the cheerful chant) even Dino (with Reborn on his shoulder) and Bianchi stood in the audience before her.

Then as she looked at those familiar faces—Mukuro and his "trident" (As he called it) and Tsuna with a giant smile—she felt a tear roll down her cheek.

"Now look what you've done." Mukuro shook his head at Tsuna, "You've made her cry."

"That's not very polite Tsuna." Dino scolded playfully.

"Well I didn't mean to—"

"The tenth already suggested we call her and explain. _You _were the ones who wanted a surprise party." Gokudera defended.

"That's true." Mukuro laughed in his strange way and smiled almost apologetically at Chrome.

"We are EXTREMLY sorry for worrying you Chrome!" Ryohei called out to her from behind Tsuna.

"And Lambo is sorry for hanging up on you." I-Pin told Chrome as she pulled Lambo out from behind Gokudera, "Right Lambo?"

"Yeah…" He rubbed the back of his neck and looked away.

"There you go!" Yamamoto exclaimed clapping a hand down on Chrome's shoulder, "Since that's cleared up, let's get to the party!"

"Yeah!"

"Open my gift first Chrome!"

"No mine!"

"He could take his hand off her shoulder….that would be great…"

"Hey Hibari! Get in here!"

"Stop sulking Lambo!"

"I'll never forget this birthday!" Chrome laughed as she pulled open the first gift, which I-Pin had wrapped professionally.


End file.
